Q: Could you please give me the writing address of Patti Tate, the sister of the murdered actress Sharon Tate. She has been active in denying parole to the former members of the Manson family and working with the organization Parents of Murdered Children (POMC). - J.C., Newport News. A: Patti Tate works closely with the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau not the Parents of Murdered Children. The bureau is a nonprofit organization named after victims' rights crusader Doris Tate, whose daughter, Sharon, was murdered in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson.

Q: Could you please give me the writing address of Patti Tate, the sister of the murdered actress Sharon Tate. She has been active in denying parole to the former members of the Manson family and working with the organization Parents of Murdered Children (POMC). - J.C., Newport News. A: Patti Tate works closely with the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau not the Parents of Murdered Children. The bureau is a nonprofit organization named after victims' rights crusader Doris Tate, whose daughter, Sharon, was murdered in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson.

The deluge of violence in the United States, real and fictional, takes its toll on the living. Acts of violence recede in the public memory, replaced by new mayhem. People become numb and less susceptible to outrage. And young people are all too ready to resort to any kind of behavior by which they can thumb their noses at convention. How else to explain a new fascination with convicted mass murder mastermind Charles Manson? Thanks to a reprieve from the Supreme Court, which converted his death sentence to life in prison in 1972, and to people all too ready to turn a profit, Manson is forging a new niche in pop culture.

Every cause needs a poster child. Term limits: Dan Rostenkowski. Cosmetic surgery: Liz Taylor. Single motherhood: Murphy Brown. Immortality: Elvis. Eliminating parole: Charles Manson. Today's cause is returning instant replay reviews to the NFL, and the poster children are the officials from Sunday's playoff game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins. Did you see it? The zebras didn't. Sorry. Officials have feelings, too. But Sunday's performance was too poor to be ignored.

I don't know about you, but for the past week I have heard the names of Mickey and Mallory, the lead characters in the new Oliver Stone film, "Natural Born Killers," uttered during every commercial break in the country. I had to go find out for myself what the buzz was all about. The movie stars Woody Harrelson as Mickey and Juliette Lewis as Mallory. Together they cross the country killing dozens as trashy tabloid TV shows rack up the ratings. The police want them behind bars.

When serial killers strike, the police come under tremendous public pressure to find a quick solution. This book details the FBI's ongoing effort to form and operate a unit that studies and analyzes serial killings and killers so that police can identify and apprehend such murderers as soon as possible. It has had a degree of success. Robert K. Ressler, who lives near Fredericksburg, had a significant lead role in that effort. As the FBI refined the unit, he developed the behavioral pattern that gives local police a reasonable profile of the serial killer - usually a white male in his late 20s or early 30s who grew up in a family where there was no observable closeness and who experienced some traumatic experience in childhood.

Bobby Eugene Lynn, 53, a political gadfly who ran unsuccessfully for office three times, died Sunday, Nov. 12, in his home. Mr. Lynn twice ran for the City Council, in 1986 and 1988 and once for a Newport News seat in the House of Delegates, in 1987. His most active campaign was in 1987, when he ran on a platform that called for a crackdown on food stamp abuse. To back his charge that the food stamp program was riddled with abuse, he claimed that he had been able to buy marijuana cigarettes with some stamps.

Gov. Doug Wilder did the humane thing. Attorney General Mary Sue Terry did what was right. On Tuesday, Wilder rescued convicted murderer Joseph M. Giarratano Jr. from the electric chair with a pardon that offered him a chance to request a new trial that might set him free. On Wednesday, Terry told Giarratano there would be no new trial because he killed two people. Her reasoning was so simple and precise that it cut through all the rhetoric of death penalty opponents who spearheaded the effort to spring Giarratano.

Retired FBI agent Robert K. Ressler veiled his disgust as he probed the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer for the reasons behind the serial killer's cannibalism, blood-drinking and necrophilia. Ressler kept his rapport with John Wayne Gacy by refusing to debate the multiple murderer's explanation that he killed 33 youths to rid the world of "punks and little queers." And Ressler masked his personal feelings as he heard repeat killer Edmund Kemper outline his motives for meticulously decapitating and dismembering victims.

Until I saw the television commercial the other night, I had not realized just how completely Nancy Kerrigan's moment had passed. The commercial, coming on the heels of an ad for vegetable soup, was selling something with just as little meat and even less flavor: the Nancy Kerrigan Christmas special, complete with seasonal tunes from Aaron Neville, set to air Saturday night on TNT. The show is a latent by-product of the mania that swept the...

Until I saw the television commercial the other night, I had not realized just how completely Nancy Kerrigan's moment had passed. The commercial, coming on the heels of an ad for vegetable soup, was selling something with just as little meat and even less flavor: the Nancy Kerrigan Christmas special, complete with seasonal tunes from Aaron Neville, set to air Saturday night on TNT. The show is a latent by-product of the mania that swept the...

I don't know about you, but for the past week I have heard the names of Mickey and Mallory, the lead characters in the new Oliver Stone film, "Natural Born Killers," uttered during every commercial break in the country. I had to go find out for myself what the buzz was all about. The movie stars Woody Harrelson as Mickey and Juliette Lewis as Mallory. Together they cross the country killing dozens as trashy tabloid TV shows rack up the ratings. The police want them behind bars.

The deluge of violence in the United States, real and fictional, takes its toll on the living. Acts of violence recede in the public memory, replaced by new mayhem. People become numb and less susceptible to outrage. And young people are all too ready to resort to any kind of behavior by which they can thumb their noses at convention. How else to explain a new fascination with convicted mass murder mastermind Charles Manson? Thanks to a reprieve from the Supreme Court, which converted his death sentence to life in prison in 1972, and to people all too ready to turn a profit, Manson is forging a new niche in pop culture.

To the fool who thinks that sticks in my exhaust pipe on my Integra will start cleaning up the environment. Why don't you recycle toilet paper? Guns and Roses should have their roses snipped. I can't believe they would actually do anything to the good with this Charles Manson guy. They're really swaying the kids the wrong way. To think that man is going to be able to make money while we're paying for him to be in jail. That money should be turned over to the jail to support his butt.

When serial killers strike, the police come under tremendous public pressure to find a quick solution. This book details the FBI's ongoing effort to form and operate a unit that studies and analyzes serial killings and killers so that police can identify and apprehend such murderers as soon as possible. It has had a degree of success. Robert K. Ressler, who lives near Fredericksburg, had a significant lead role in that effort. As the FBI refined the unit, he developed the behavioral pattern that gives local police a reasonable profile of the serial killer - usually a white male in his late 20s or early 30s who grew up in a family where there was no observable closeness and who experienced some traumatic experience in childhood.

Retired FBI agent Robert K. Ressler veiled his disgust as he probed the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer for the reasons behind the serial killer's cannibalism, blood-drinking and necrophilia. Ressler kept his rapport with John Wayne Gacy by refusing to debate the multiple murderer's explanation that he killed 33 youths to rid the world of "punks and little queers." And Ressler masked his personal feelings as he heard repeat killer Edmund Kemper outline his motives for meticulously decapitating and dismembering victims.

Every cause needs a poster child. Term limits: Dan Rostenkowski. Cosmetic surgery: Liz Taylor. Single motherhood: Murphy Brown. Immortality: Elvis. Eliminating parole: Charles Manson. Today's cause is returning instant replay reviews to the NFL, and the poster children are the officials from Sunday's playoff game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins. Did you see it? The zebras didn't. Sorry. Officials have feelings, too. But Sunday's performance was too poor to be ignored.

To the fool who thinks that sticks in my exhaust pipe on my Integra will start cleaning up the environment. Why don't you recycle toilet paper? Guns and Roses should have their roses snipped. I can't believe they would actually do anything to the good with this Charles Manson guy. They're really swaying the kids the wrong way. To think that man is going to be able to make money while we're paying for him to be in jail. That money should be turned over to the jail to support his butt.

Gov. Doug Wilder did the humane thing. Attorney General Mary Sue Terry did what was right. On Tuesday, Wilder rescued convicted murderer Joseph M. Giarratano Jr. from the electric chair with a pardon that offered him a chance to request a new trial that might set him free. On Wednesday, Terry told Giarratano there would be no new trial because he killed two people. Her reasoning was so simple and precise that it cut through all the rhetoric of death penalty opponents who spearheaded the effort to spring Giarratano.

Bobby Eugene Lynn, 53, a political gadfly who ran unsuccessfully for office three times, died Sunday, Nov. 12, in his home. Mr. Lynn twice ran for the City Council, in 1986 and 1988 and once for a Newport News seat in the House of Delegates, in 1987. His most active campaign was in 1987, when he ran on a platform that called for a crackdown on food stamp abuse. To back his charge that the food stamp program was riddled with abuse, he claimed that he had been able to buy marijuana cigarettes with some stamps.